


it takes great courage (to see the world)

by gangtansonyeondan



Category: One Piece
Genre: Character Analysis, Character Study, Gen, Mentions of Death, just me having Feelings™ about luffy and piracy and the concept of heroes, kind of, luffy acknowledging he has killed before nothing major, luffy being comfortable with his criminality, luffy is going to be pirate king!!!!, shit summary hopefully good fic, wow the one piece world is really fucked up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:48:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25669228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gangtansonyeondan/pseuds/gangtansonyeondan
Summary: Here’s the thing: Monkey D. Luffy is no hero.—A (short) character analysis about Monkey D. Luffy and what it means to be a pirate.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20





	it takes great courage (to see the world)

**Author's Note:**

> title is from an oscar wilde poem (i think it's a poem? it's really good)
> 
> "it takes great courage  
> to see the world  
> in all its tainted glory  
> and still to love it."
> 
> this was literally just me waking up at 5am and being like "okay but. consider. luffy and how he insists he isn't a hero. plus the war and the fact that being a pirate isn't all shit and giggles" and then just writing it down at 5am and trying to make it a good fic five hours later. i hope i succeeded a bit.
> 
> warnings: mentions of death and how fucked up the world government is (slavery). i don't think it's enough to trigger anyone but if you don't feel comfortable with mentioning death and slavery don't read!!! be safe!!!
> 
> also english isn't my first language :)
> 
> enjoy!

Here’s the thing: Monkey D. Luffy is no hero.

He knows it. His crew knows it. The World Government likes to rub it in on everybody’s faces, like an annoying propaganda repeating over and over and over: ‘Straw-Hat Luffy is a criminal!’

It’s not a big deal, though; he likes to keep all his meat to himself, either way, so it really doesn’t bother him to be yelled at and sneered upon and carefully looked at from the corner of an eye, being stepped around and avoided whenever they arrive to a new island.

Because…

Here’s the thing: Luffy _has_ hurt— people, villages, countries.

(He has helped and mended and saved, too, but it always seems to come down to the worst of him, the parts he prefers to keep quiet and occasional. Still, they are a part of him, of who he is; they are a part of what makes Straw-Hat Luffy, Pirate Captain, criminal.)

It is never — _never_ — his motive to hurt, but he _has_ done so before. He has killed and harmed and destroyed; and he is willing to do it again and again, with the right motives.

(It all comes down to _motives_ , in the end.)

He doesn’t really mind it much in those cases, and even when the motives aren’t enough in the face of pain and suffering, he has grown accustomed to it, to the hurting of faces of strangers. 

(He doesn’t have to like it, or enjoy it —he has seen too much, lived too much, to be able to bring himself to enjoy tears of frustration and screams of pain, even if they don’t belong to anyone important to him— but he _is_ used to it, to this world he lives in.)

When he _does_ hurt and kill and destroy, though, it’s… it’s kind of usually collateral damage. It’s necessary, sometimes, the means to an end… but others, it’s just that. Collateral.

It’s an asshole thing to do, an awful way to think, he _knows_ that, but listen— _listen !_

Here’s the thing: Luffy _is_ a pirate. 

He’d like to think he’s not an unnecessary cruel man; he has met more than enough of those— but he’s a pirate.

This world he was born into is a ruthless one; it has no mercy to offer to the weak and the innocent and the broken. There are so many things to watch out for, people to protect oneself from, that steal and kill and torture and enslave and erase; and pirates are as much of a part of those as the world itself is.

The world— it _hates_ the pitiful and the try-hards, and it specially loathes freedom— and _Luffy_ is going to be the freest, one day.

He always always _always_ has a choice, when it comes to hurting and killing and breaking— there’s always an alternative, when you aim to be King; and he has chosen to do so many many times, will still choose to do so many more.

And even when he _doesn’t_ kill, isn’t it worse, crueler, more hurtful, to have lost and still live? To have your dreams and ambitions and will beaten down, destroyed brick by brick, slowly and painfully, and having to live through it, having to continue as an empty shell of what you once were? Wouldn’t someone rather have the peaceful nothingness of death rather than the hollow life that would await for them when they have nothing left?

In the end, it doesn’t matter.

Because— here’s the thing.

Luffy is a pirate, not a hero. He is the one who will be King.

And even if he had the time, he wouldn’t waste it thinking about such unimportant things like common sense and morals.

Luffy is many, many things. Free, to name one.

A deep thinker has never been one of those.

**Author's Note:**

> this is really short and probably really shitty i am so sorry. 
> 
> a couple of things:  
> i'm not sure about the characterization of luffy so i'm sorry about that too lmao. 
> 
> hhhhhh i just finished fishman island arc a week or so ago, and am currently almost ending punk hazard. but i just absolutely loved how vehemently luffy denies being a hero and then i was just. at 5am trying to sleep and i thought about it and this came out dskgjskh.
> 
> also. the part where i say "luffy has hurt— people, villages, countries" i'm not sure if in canon they ever like raid a village or something— i'm pretty sure they don't because 1) nami and 2) it's def not luffy's style. it just came it out like that, so it probably was just me being dramatic and thinking it sounded good. if i bothered someone i'm sorry!!! i for one don't think luffy is much of a villain and i absolutely adore him, but as the fic says, he is a pirate. just wanted to clarify that!
> 
> i am actually quite happy with how it turned out?? so i hope you enjoyed the fic!!!
> 
> thank you for reading!!!!!!!!! if you decide to leave kudos thanks i love you!!!! if you decide to comment thanks i love you too!!!!!! and sorry if i take a while to answer bc sometimes i forget to check stuff but just know that i am very grateful and will definetly answer... eventually.
> 
> i was thinking of making a spanish version of this fic since spanish is my first language, but the more i learn about either language (english or spanish) i just get worse at both dsgkjlsdhn. but still, i absolutely adore reading in spanish and it's a gorgeous language so. maybe i'll do it lmao.
> 
> this is a long long end notes so i'm sorry again sdgksdn i was excited bc i always love to read the notes in other fics i read but i think i went too far lmao.
> 
> if you made it this far, thank you for reading both the fic and the notes!!! (the notes may be longer this is just plain sad) i would give you my firstborn but im never gonna have kids so. please accept my gratitude as a thank you. 
> 
> bye!!!!


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